A food blog in Fargo, ND

Ginger Bread House

This was my very first attempt at making a cool looking ginger bread house. I’ve made ones before but this was the first time making my own ginger bread pieces for the house. To make the pieces I went to a website and got the dimensions of the building pieces. I used a ruler to so that every line was even. What I should have done was cut out a downloaded pattern that was free on the Internet. My measuring didn’t turn out to be that great and it helps to have some grid patterned paper when making the building pieces.

Another thing I learned about making ginger bread pieces is to decorate them first and let them dry. It’s much easier that way because trying to frost some ginger bread standing up on it’s side is quite hard. After you decorate the pieces then assemble them. If I did it that way I could have spread out the tasks a little more and not have to get the whole building decorated in one night. When I do that, I just feel rushed and my work turns out kind of sloppy like you can see it in the picture. Oh well, I think one of the greatest ways to learn in life is to make mistakes. Then you know exactly what to do the next time the right away. Or you could just follow the instructions step by step and not have to worry about any of that.

Shingles – Wheat Chex

Rocks – Rock Candy

Window Shutters – Pretzel Rods

House Paint – Royal Icing

Windows – Icing

For the ginger bread recipe and royal icing I used the recipes found at this site. You can also find a very complete detailed list of instructions here.

Notes:

1. When making gingerbread houses, you don’t need to buy a ton of candy. A piping bag and icing can cover a lot of decorating grounds.

2. To fill a piping bag use a tall glass tumbler. Cut a hole open at the bottom of the tip and place and place the tip in the bag. Make sure the bag covers the whole entire glass and then put the icing in it.